The Congress of South African Trade Unions will campaign to ensure that farm workers are able to vote in the coming election, Cosatu president Willie Madisha told the funeral procession of Nelson Chisale who was allegedly assaulted and thrown to lions.
He said that ”at least 5 000 people” had attended the funeral at Maboloka, near Brits. ”There are a few farmers who do not allow political activity on their farms and do not even allow farm workers to vote,” he said.
”What Chisale had gone through is what other workers in this country are going through — particularly those who are vulnerable, like domestic workers and farm workers.”
Madisha said he saw Chisale’s death as having allegedly been due to the actions of a few individuals in the white farming community who could not accept change.
On the eve of the funeral, a Pretoria High Court judge ruled that the dignity of the Chisale family weighed more than the right of his alleged killers to a fair trial and dismissed an urgent application to stop his funeral.
Leon Kellerman, representing Mark Scott-Crossley and his employees, Richards ”Doctor” Mathebule and Simon Mathebula, said his clients would be denied a fair trial if a private forensic pathologist was not allowed to perform further tests on Chisale’s remains.
The tests would determine the time and cause of death, he told the court.
Scott-Crossley, who owns a construction business at the Engedi game farm in Limpopo, was arrested with two of his workers after the body of Chisale was discovered in a lion camp at the Mokwalo Game Farm near Hoedspruit at the end of January this year.
It is alleged that the three accused, who will apply for bail on March 30, had seriously assaulted Chisale when he returned to fetch his personal possessions after Scott-Crossley had fired him.
The victim was allegedly thrown to the lions while he was still alive.
Only a skull, broken bones and a finger was later found in the lion camp.
Counsel for the three accused, Leon Kellerman, told the court his clients would be denied a fair trial if a private forensic pathologist was not allowed to perform further tests on Chisale’s remains to determine the time and cause of death. ‒ Sapa